Weapons mod

[Catwalk]

After realizing how easy it is to mod stuff with BB's editor I've thrown myself head first into a small modding project, focusing on rebalancing things to promote different tactics and tradeoffs. The main points are:

1) To make more of the starting gear useful

2) To make Gauss a little more powerful, raising research costs to balance it

3) To distinguish pistols (good for scouting purposes, improved snap shots, weakened aimed shots) rifles (good for close combat, improved auto shots, still useful for snap and aimed shots) and cannons (strong and slow, good aimed shots but horrible snap shots) more clearly from each other.

4) I'm using a self imposed rule of using only aimed shots for sniper purposes, ie. if the soldier shooting can't see the alien he's only allowed to use aimed shots. Aimed shots have been nerfed across the board to make sniping a little less powerful.

5) Some weapons have had certain modes removed entirely. For example, the hydro jet cannon can no longer be used for reaction fire or sniping, only auto shots when in sight of the target. Similarly, the gas cannon can only be used for sniping. The heavy gauss has been given a wildly inaccurate (but still powerful at point blank range) autofire attack for fun, to stress the autofire functionality of gauss.

6) Making grenade choice more interesting by raising the power of magna packs over sonic pulsers but also making them really hard to throw.

7) Making the development phase of the game last much longer and with more overlap, rather than immediately jumping to the next technology level once available.

 

CURRENT VERSION

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Basic ranged weapons family (versatile, weak aimed shots, low damage, good firing speed, large clips)

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Dart Gun (15)

Damage: 25

Auto: None

Snap: 50% accuracy and 20% TU

Aimed: 35% accuracy and 45% TU

 

Jet Harpoon (12)

Damage: 35

Auto: 35% accuracy and 40% TU

Snap: 45% accuracy and 30% TU

Aimed: 60% accuracy and 55% TU

 

Hydro Jet Cannon (20 AP, 12 HE)

Damage: 40 AP, 50 HE

Auto: 40% accuracy and 25% TU (AP only)

Snap: 25% accuracy and 30% TU (HE only, reaction shot not allowed)

Aimed: Removed

 

Gas Cannon (8 AP, 12 PH)

Damage: 50 for AP, 45 for PH

Auto: None

Snap: 75% firing accuracy and 30% TU (PH only, reaction shot not allowed)

Aimed: 70% accuracy and 65% TU (AP only)

 

Torpedo Launcher (1)

Damage: 80 for small torpedo, 90 => 100 for large torpedo, 80 => 120 for PH

Auto: None

Snap: Removed

Aimed: 100% accuracy and 85% TU

Note: Weight of small torpedo 6 => 4, weight of large and PH torpedo 8 => 10

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Gauss family (good auto modes)

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Gauss Pistol (15)

Damage: 40

Auto: 40% accuracy and 30% TU

Snap: 50% accuracy and 25% TU

Aimed: 55% (change to 45%) accuracy and 50% TU

 

Gauss Rifle (12)

Damage: 60

Auto: 65% accuracy and 40% TU

Snap: 60% accuracy and 35% TU

Aimed: 85% (change to 80%) accuracy and 70% TU

 

Heavy Gauss (9)

Damage: 80

Auto: 10% accuracy, 60% TU

Snap: 40% accuracy and 50% TU

Aimed: 100% accuracy and 75% TU

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Sonic family (high damage, good aimed modes, low firing speed, small clips)

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Sonic Pistol (10)

Damage: 70

Auto: None

Snap: 65% accuracy and 35% TU

Aimed: 75% accuracy and 55% TU

 

Sonic-Blasta Rifle (8)

Damage: 110

Auto: None

Snap: 60% accuracy and 45% TU

Aimed: 110% accuracy and 75% TU

 

Sonic Cannon (6)

Damage: 150

Auto: None

Snap: 55% accuracy and 60% TU

Aimed: 85% accuracy and 80% TU

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Grenades

Magna Blast Grenade

Damage: 60

Weight: 3 => 5

 

PD Grenade (must research live Gillman)

Damage: 70 => 30 and changed to Stun damage

Weight: 3 => 4

 

Magna Pack Explosive (must research live Aquatoid)

Damage: 110 => 160

Weight: 6 => 10

 

Sonic Pulser

Damage: 130 => 100

Weight: 3

 

Smoke Grenade

Damage: 10 => 60

Weight: 3

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Miscellaneous

Thermal Shok Launcher

Damage: 80

Snap: 60% accuracy and 50% TU

Aimed: 80% accuracy and 75% TU

 

Disruptor Pulse Launcher

Damage: 210

Launch: Full TU required

Note: Only one waypoint allowed, directly above you

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Please comment on the madness!

[Bomb Bloke]

Hah, so finally someone uses my item editor... Never thought I'd see the day.

[Catwalk]

Revision of weapons to lower damage across the board and general description of the purpose of each family.

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Basic ranged weapons family (versatile, low accuracy, low damage, good firing speed, large clips)

Dart Gun: 16 => 25

Jet Harpoon: 32 => 40 => 35

Hydro Jet Cannon: 40 => 45 for AP (auto only), 50 HE (snap shot only, think of this as an inaccurate grenade launcher), PH removed

Gas Cannon: 60 => 50 for AP (aimed shot only), 60 => 75 for PH (snap shot only, think of this as flamethrower capability), HE removed

Torpedo Launcher: 80 for small torpedo, 90 => 100 for large torpedo, 80 => 120 for PH

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Gauss family (excellent auto fire, decent damage)

Gauss Pistol: 45 => 50 => 45

Gauss Rifle: 60 => 70 => 60

Heavy Gauss: 75 => 90 => 80

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Sonic family (high damage, high accuracy, low firing speed, small clips)

Sonic Pistol: 80 => 70

Sonic-Blasta Rifle: 90 => 100 => 90

Sonic Cannon: 130 => 150

Auto: None

Snap: 80% => 60% accuracy and 50% => 60% TU

Aimed: 115% => 90% accuracy and 70% => 75% TU

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Grenades (new rule: primer 0 may not be used!)

Magna Blast Grenade

Damage: 60

Weight: 3 => 5

 

PD Grenade (must research live Gillman)

Damage: 70 => 30 and changed to Stun damage

Weight: 3 => 4

 

Magna Pack Explosive (must research live Aquatoid)

Damage: 110 => 150 => 160

Weight: 6 => 10

 

Sonic Pulser

Damage: 130 => 100

Weight: 3 => 2

 

Smoke Grenade (primer 0 is allowed)

Damage: 10 => 60

Weight: 3

 

Chemical Flare (turning it into a molotov cocktail, still functional as a 1-turn flare)

Damage: 0 => 50 PH

Weight: 3 => 2

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Again, please comment

 

And a few questions:

1) Can I edit the cost of purchasing and manufacturing items?

2) Can I edit x-com armour?

3) How do the aliens choose between aimed and snap shot?

[Bomb Bloke]

Those are not things my particular editors deal with. Regarding the alien's choice of firing mode, I don't think there's currently any mod/tool available that can affect that.

 

I'm pretty sure Hatfarm's stuff lets you mess with your first two points.

[Catwalk]

Yay, thanks for the tip. What I meant with choice of shot type was how the AI determines whether to use snap or aimed, to make sure I don't mess it up by changing the balance between snap and aimed.

 

EDIT: Seems like he only has a base editor for TFTD :/

[NKF]

The aliens don't use aimed shot if memory serves. Only snap and auto shot (though no default alien weapons in TFTD have auto-shots!) . You can always test this out by disabling the snap mode and just leave the aimed mode in and have a look and see if it attempts to fire. That might actually confuse the game and do something strange, but worth a look at in either case.

 

Armor and buy/sell values are in the executable. Haven't really seen any editors that manipulate them yet, so hex editing and a lot of patience is needed.

 

Apart from the physical stats and basic firing modes, weapon behavior isn't something that's very easy to modify. Turning the chemical flare into a molotov cocktail won't work as the game will default it to HE damage if I remember correctly.

 

- NKF

[Catwalk]

It's perfect if the aliens don't use aimed shots, thanks.

 

I'm as green as Greenland when it comes to hex editing, any estimate on how much time it'd take me to edit those from start to finish?

 

Damnit, I thought I was being smart :/ Are there any other implications of this? Would it be impossible to change Sonic to AP, if I wanted to for some strange reason?

[NKF]

Well, the most time will be spent in finding the offsets for these values you want to change. Thats the hardest part. Not sure if they've been mapped out just yet.

 

You can certainly change the sonic cannon to fire any of the basic damage types. You can easily make all sorts of your garden variety ranged weapons, or turn almost anything into a grenade (including bodies).

 

- NKF

[Catwalk]

Yeah, seems like all grenades default to HE damage. So much for that idea. I updated all stats in the original post, think I'll go with these values.

[pwwwa]

Hi There !

...PD Grenade (must research live Gillman)... ...Magna Pack Explosive (must research live Aquatoid)... ...Grenades (new rule: primer 0 may not be used!)...

Can you explain me (us) how did you done that ?

[Catwalk]

Sorry, those are simply self imposed rules. I refrain from using timer 0 on grenades. That makes them pretty tricky to use and a bit more random, but still useful as aimed shots are nerfed heavily.

 

As for research requirements, I actually forgot about those Those are also self imposed rules. This is an old post, I've revised my mod several times since then and I still change stuff from time to time.